San Francisco Giants Slugger Could Net Them Ace From Seattle Mariners

If the San Francisco Giants want to land the ace from the Seattle Mariners, they could trade one of their sluggers to get it done.

Aug 11, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo (58) celebrates the final out during the sixth inning against the New York Mets at T-Mobile Park / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

If the San Francisco Giants are going to land an ace-caliber arm this offseason, they'll have to get aggressive to make that happen.

They missed out on Corbin Burnes when he shockingly signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Giants were seen as front-runners by some insiders, so losing the sweepstakes for the star right-hander certainly hurt their plans this winter.

Buster Posey has yet to make a trade since he was hired as the president of baseball operations, but if he is going to do something before Opening Day, he might as well make it one that is memorable.

Landing Luis Castillo would fall into that category.

The right-hander is being shopped by the Seattle Mariners as they look to offload his contract and use him to upgrade positions of need, ideally at the corner infield positions where they have not had consistent offensive output the past few years.

With that in mind, Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle thinks Posey could send his own slugging first baseman as a featured part of a trade package to bring Castillo to San Francisco.

"[Jerry] DiPoto, who loves a transaction or six, would be a fun first trade partner, particularly if Posey and [Zach] Minasian can somehow pry Castillo away from Seattle ... The Mariners need a first baseman and LaMonte Wade Jr. could be a nice fit for them," she writes.

That would be interesting.

One of the reasons why the Giants have seemingly been reluctant to go after power-hitting players at first base is because they don't want to block their star prospect Bryce Eldridge for when he's ready to be called up.

Handing a long-term commitment to the likes of Pete Alonso at this point in time doesn't seem likely, so if they are ready to clear even more space for Eldridge, then moving LaMonte Wade Jr. could be the route they take if it lands them Castillo.

There has been no information regarding if the two sides would be interested in this type of deal, but it's an interesting thought.

Wade would bring power and on-base prowess to the Mariners with 51 homers across 438 games with San Francisco and an OBP of .352.

Since Oracle Park isn't the easiest place to produce slugging numbers, Seattle shouldn't be worried about him having a drop off in production if they acquire him.

The Giants might not be ready to totally clear out their first base position since Eldridge just played his first full professional season and only has 147 games under his belt and just 17 at the Double and Triple-A levels combined.

But if they are serious about landing another top-of-the-rotation guy to pair with Logan Webb, then moving Wade is something Posey and the front office should seriously consider.